Tae Kwando English information text

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean sport whose roots go near to 2000 years back in time. In Korean it’s called taegwondo, (the way of the foot and the hand).Tae means feet, Kwon means hand and Do means way.In the beginning it was the upper class soldiers who learned unarmed battle art, at that time the style was called Taekkyon. The art to defend your self without a weapon spread out to the peoples who needed it most, the under class that were forbidden to hold a weapon, and Taekkyon became a part of the Korean identity.The sport that we today call Tae Kwon Do was made after the Japanese invasion of Korea came to an end in 1945. After 36 years of occupation when all the Korean culture had been forbidden, the nationalism feelings spread out in country and the first martial art school opened in Seoul the same year. Under the following 10 years more fight art schools opened, all of them with their own name of the fight art. In 1955 all chiefs of all the schools were collected to unite about one form of martial art that would be main form. This form gain the name Tae Soon Do, but just after two years the named were changed to Tae Kwon Do, partly because it described good what the fight art was about, partly cause it had a sound that resembled historical name Taekkyon.In 1973 the first world championship in Tae Kwon Do was hold.

Tae Kwon Do have two different competition forms, Battle, which in Korean means kyorugi and pattern, which in Korean means poomsae.

Kyorugi: In kyorugi the participants divides dependence into age, sex, weight and belt colour. The age groups is minior (till you be 13 year), junior (14-18) and senior (19+). Competitors that have yellow, green or blue belt are called beginners and compete in an own class, competitors that have red or black belt are called advanced and compete in an other class. Which the weight classes are depends if the competitors are ladies or men and if they are juniors or seniors it is four to six kilos between each weight class.You compete on a carpet that is 12 by 12 meter and try to get most points by put controlled kicks on the allowed hit spots which are stomach, side and sometimes the head. Miniors are not allowed to kick on the head, if they do that they will be de It’s not allowed to kick below the protection vest.The competitors in Kyorugi wear a padded vest, a soft helmet, shinguards, armguards, elbowguards and suspensor.

Poomsae: Poomsae is an intrained series of kicks punches and blocks that makes in the air against imagined opponent. The winner appoints by a jury that marks who of the competitors that did the best poomsae.

Famous CompetitorsSteven Lopez is a famous competitor from USA and he’s ranking No.1 in the weight class under 80 kilosDae Sung Moon is a competitor from Korea that has ranking No.1 in the weight class over 80...